Giveaway #4 – The Cook’s Essential Kitchen Dictionary

As food bloggers we sometime receive books from publishers asking us to review them. I decided to accept 4 books recently intending to pass them on to you who read my blog. This giveaway is intended as a thank you for keeping up with my food and travel writing, for joining my weekly mailing list, RSS feed and following me on social media. There will be 4 giveaways, 2 today and 2 next week on Friday November 21. Watch the blog for details.

The giveaway begins with this post and will end on November 30. Let me know which book you are interested in and I will randomly draw a winner for each of the books and will mail it to you on December 1st. Scroll to the bottom of the post for easy giveaway entry rules.

The Cook’s Essential Kitchen Dictionary

The Cook’s essential kitchen dictionary

This is not a cookbook in the sense that it offers recipes but I think it is an essential part of any cook’s library. Whether you love reading culinary books to expand your knowledge or are looking for a specific explanation of a culinary term, this is the book for you. With more than 5000 culinary terms defined and explained with extensive historical background, this book is interesting, useful and educational for home and professional cooks alike.

The author, Jaques L. Rolland is a Frenchman from Chambery born to a hotel and restaurant family and has acquired a degree in culinary arts and a sommelier diploma.

The book is organized alphabetically and includes American, British, French, Italian and spanish cooking terms.

Here are a couple of terms defined in the book, with a little trivia to go:

Eggs Benedict: a creation, in the late 1920’s of New York City’s Delmonico’s restaurant, in response to two patrons, Mr. and Mrs, LeGrand Benedict, who complained that there was nothing new on the lunch menu. The chef, the manager and the maitre d’ collaborated to please their client’s palates, and the result was a poached egg and ham or Canadian bacon on a toasted English muffin, topped with hollandaise sauce.

Mise en place is a French culinary term meaning “to put in place” or to have all the ingredients assembled before you begin to cook a dish. Frequently, cookware shops and catalogues sell sets of tempered glass bowls in a variety of sizes under the name “mise en place”.

Soffrito is an Italian mixture used to flavour numerous dishes, including risotto and most soups, consisting of onion, parsley and (historically) lard or olive oil (althopgu garlic, celery or carrots are also used, depending on the flavour of the final dish) sauteed until light golden brown.

To enter the giveaway all you need to do is ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

Leave a comment on this post, OR…

Leave a comment on any post on the blog and say you wish to participate in the book giveaway (I personally vet all comments so I’ll see yours), Or…

Like my page on myFacebook page and leave a comment there mentioning the Giveaway, Or…

I didn’t know the story about Eggs Benedict! My grandma used to talk about Delmonico’s when she told us of her frequent trips to NYC. She never once complained about the menu. 😉
The book looks fun and superhelpful. Many thanks!